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Description
This is a digital reproduction of my favourite painting ever, Whistlejacket by George Stubbs.

(copied and pasted from Wikipedia.org)

Whistlejacket is an oil-on-canvas painting from about 1762 by British artist George Stubbs showing the Marquess of Rockingham's racehorse, rearing up against a blank background. The huge canvas, lack of other features, and Stubbs' attention to the minute details of the horse's appearance give the portrait a powerful physical presence. It has been described in The Independent as "a paradigm of the flawless beauty of an Arabian thoroughbred".

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, a Whig politician who would later serve two terms as British Prime Minister, commissioned Stubbs to produce a series of portraits of his horses, one of which was Whistlejacket.
A chestnut (or sorrel) stallion, with lighter mane and tail, Whistlejacket was foaled in 1749 at the stud of Sir William Middleton, 3rd Baronet at Belsay Castle in Northumberland, and named after a contemporary cold remedy containing gin and treacle. His sire was Mogul and grandsire was the Godolphin Arabian; through his dam, he was also descended from the Byerly Turk, and various other Arabians and Turks. He raced from 1752, winning many races in the North. He lost to Jason in the King's Plate at Newmarket in 1755, but won the following year, and was also narrowly beaten by Spectator for the Jockey Club Plate at Newmarket in 1756, and was sold soon after to the Marquess of Rockingham. He famously won a four-mile race at York in August 1759 against a strong field, beating Brutus by a length, and then retired to stud. He was beaten only four times in his racing career, but was notoriously temperamental and difficult to manage. Stubbs depicts him rising to a levade and pays intimate attention to the features of Whistlejacket's body. Minute blemishes, veins and the muscles flexing just below the surface of the skin are all visible and reproduced with almost photographic accuracy. Despite the isolation of the subject from natural surroundings Stubbs manages to create a living animal.

The Rockingham family retained the painting until 1997, when funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the National Gallery, London to acquire it for £11 million.

And the very painting is hung, pride of place, in the grandest room in the National Gallery, which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier this year.

Why did I draw this picture? Well, it's actually art homework - I had to reproduce a famous painting and display it beside the original in my art book. We had two weeks to do it, so I figured why settle for a pencil drawing when I could paint it, in full colour, on my computer? So I did just that, and this resulted. I love it to bits - I'm going to get my mum to have it printed for me so I can hang it in my room next to my print of the original painting. *fangirly squeal* I love Whistlejacket so much, sorry. And sorry about the watermark, too. I can see this being stolen. Thank you very much for looking!

If anyone wants prints of this I'll have to check with dA whether it can be sold since the original painting's not mine.

Whistlejacket
Reproduced digitally from an original painting by George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806), c. 1762
Completed 18 September 2010
6-10hrs
Photoshop CS3
music: lots and lots and lots of Mcfly
www.zeunicorn1o.deviantart.com
All rights reserved

PS. Look out for a Whistlejacket of my own in HARPG sometime!

Description
This is a digital reproduction of my favourite painting ever, Whistlejacket by George Stubbs.

(copied and pasted from Wikipedia.org)

Whistlejacket is an oil-on-canvas painting from about 1762 by British artist George Stubbs showing the Marquess of Rockingham's racehorse, rearing up against a blank background. The huge canvas, lack of other features, and Stubbs' attention to the minute details of the horse's appearance give the portrait a powerful physical presence. It has been described in The Independent as "a paradigm of the flawless beauty of an Arabian thoroughbred".

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, a Whig politician who would later serve two terms as British Prime Minister, commissioned Stubbs to produce a series of portraits of his horses, one of which was Whistlejacket.
A chestnut (or sorrel) stallion, with lighter mane and tail, Whistlejacket was foaled in 1749 at the stud of Sir William Middleton, 3rd Baronet at Belsay Castle in Northumberland, and named after a contemporary cold remedy containing gin and treacle. His sire was Mogul and grandsire was the Godolphin Arabian; through his dam, he was also descended from the Byerly Turk, and various other Arabians and Turks. He raced from 1752, winning many races in the North. He lost to Jason in the King's Plate at Newmarket in 1755, but won the following year, and was also narrowly beaten by Spectator for the Jockey Club Plate at Newmarket in 1756, and was sold soon after to the Marquess of Rockingham. He famously won a four-mile race at York in August 1759 against a strong field, beating Brutus by a length, and then retired to stud. He was beaten only four times in his racing career, but was notoriously temperamental and difficult to manage. Stubbs depicts him rising to a levade and pays intimate attention to the features of Whistlejacket's body. Minute blemishes, veins and the muscles flexing just below the surface of the skin are all visible and reproduced with almost photographic accuracy. Despite the isolation of the subject from natural surroundings Stubbs manages to create a living animal.

The Rockingham family retained the painting until 1997, when funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the National Gallery, London to acquire it for £11 million.

And the very painting is hung, pride of place, in the grandest room in the National Gallery, which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier this year.

Why did I draw this picture? Well, it's actually art homework - I had to reproduce a famous painting and display it beside the original in my art book. We had two weeks to do it, so I figured why settle for a pencil drawing when I could paint it, in full colour, on my computer? So I did just that, and this resulted. I love it to bits - I'm going to get my mum to have it printed for me so I can hang it in my room next to my print of the original painting. *fangirly squeal* I love Whistlejacket so much, sorry. And sorry about the watermark, too. I can see this being stolen. Thank you very much for looking!

If anyone wants prints of this I'll have to check with dA whether it can be sold since the original painting's not mine.

Whistlejacket
Reproduced digitally from an original painting by George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806), c. 1762
Completed 18 September 2010
6-10hrs
Photoshop CS3
music: lots and lots and lots of Mcfly
www.zeunicorn1o.deviantart.com
All rights reserved

PS. Look out for a Whistlejacket of my own in HARPG sometime!